As someone who’s typically not a fan of reality tv shows, it’s very rare that I find one that’s able to grasp my attention. When a friend urged me to watch “The Circle”, a reality show competition on Netflix, still holding on to my aversions, I half heartedly promised to watch it in my free time with little intention to go through with it. After finally deciding to give it a chance, I expected to find myself watching another one of those shows where the guys and girls are thrown into a house together and viewers are left silently guessing who’s going to be the first to stir up the most drama. Nevertheless, after watching the first episode, I was hooked and delightfully surprised to find a reality show with a new spin, heavily influenced by the nuances of social media interaction and surprisingly bigger orientation on platonic relationships, rather than romantic ones. The show is a game based around social media where players create a profile either depicting themselves or another person that they’d like to be, in an effort to be voted the most favorite player. With a show tackling the implications of falsely portraying one’s personas, the strength of true connections, and the importance of trusting your gut, I’d say the show is definitely worth the watch. Here are just a few of the lessons I learned from watching:
Persona
Fundamentally, the persona is the personality that an individual presents in social settings, which differs from that of the authentic self, a compromise between the individual and society as to what a man should appear to be. In “The Circle”, we see quite a few characters playing the game through the portrayal of a false persona, embodying what they believed would be socially acceptable and give them the best chance of winning. With every instance of this, from Karyn pretending to be Mercedeze to Sean pretending to be a slimmer version of herself, there was more light shed on the reality that in today’s society people still hold the belief that in order to be liked you have to be someone else. For example, Seaburn presenting to be a woman in a way that he believes will win over the other players, by characterizing her as a shy, caring, and emotional. Alex came in as Adam, pretending to be what he thought others would perceive as handsome and smooth talking. To no surprise, at the end of the game, it was mostly the people who stayed true to themselves that were able to build the strongest bonds and came the closest to winning.
Connection
While I’m so used to seeing reality shows that pit people against one another, revolved around unbelievable amounts of drama, or focused on building romantic relationships, it warmed my heart to see just how much the show focused on building friendships above all else. As someone who values loyalty in friendships, I was glad to see how so many people in the game stuck by the people who they had built close connections with; they did this by helping one another advance in the game, keeping each other out of harm’s way and sticking up for one another. While the friendships were built entirely through social media interaction, “The Circle” showed that people from all walks of life can come together and build strong relationships, providing me with a reminder to take that mindset into my own life.
Instinct
Depending on how trusting you are of others, it can be hard to know who to be open with and who to be more reserved around. In a day and age where people can create entirely new versions of themselves and get so immersed in those creations that they take on those same false personas in reality, it is hard to know who’s being authentic and trustworthy. I, myself, struggle with knowing who I can trust to share personal details about myself with. While many players saw several red flags when it came to the catfish on the show, many of them ultimately ignored the signs and kept them around. From this show, I was reminded of the importance of not only spotting the signs of someone being inauthentic, but also the importance of trusting your instincts and using them to make the necessary decisions.